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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/28627650">The Tangentials</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/surpanakha/pseuds/surpanakha'>surpanakha</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Warrior Nun (TV)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Angst with a Happy Ending, Canon Compliant, F/F, Post-Canon, Slow Burn, my take on season 3, we skip season 2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-01-08</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-01-20</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-13 11:00:39</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>13,471</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/28627650</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/surpanakha/pseuds/surpanakha</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Exactly a year ago, the sisters of the Order of the Cruciform Sword defeated Adriel in a battle from which they did not emerge unscathed. Exactly a year ago, Ava lost the one thing that was the most important to her, a piece of her heart, a shard of her soul. Today, the halo bearer is finally ready to let go. Yet just before she leaves the Cat’s Cradle, a mysterious stranger with a familiar face arrives from the abyss with a circular, metallic object in their hand.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Sister Beatrice/Ava Silva</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>60</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>117</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. A Flux on the Horizon</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Part I - Strangers</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Her alarm rang at three thirty in the morning. It was not like the halo bearer to stand up the instant that her clock, a mechanical wooden rooster, signals the start of the day. Often, it would be Lilith’s persistent knocking that would nudge her out of her slumber, their whole dorm corridor having already been woken up by the crowing of the clock as it mimicked its real life equivalent.</p><p>
  <em>“Goodness, Ava, could you not have gotten a more traditional alarm clock? This is the reason why we don’t take care of chickens here at the Cat’s Cradle. This is a priory. Silence is sacred,” Lilith told the halo bearer months ago when she was finally woken up by the insistent and rather forceful knocking of the sister warrior.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“But it’s a present from Beatrice,” Ava replied, pouting. “A gift from when we were in a mission together in Barcelos.”</em>
</p><p>Lilith was silenced by the halo bearer’s answer. She no longer brought up the rooster alarm clock again.</p><p>Yet it was not an ordinary day at the Cat’s Cradle, so Ava stood up and stretched, put on a pair of jogger pants and her blue hoodie, and made her way to the corridor's shared bathroom with her toothbrush in hand.</p><p>The sister warriors of the Cat’s Cradle, nuns from the exclusive and secret Order of the Cruciform Sword, highly trained in combat and tactical skills, often wake up together at four to go for a run around the convent before they start the day. Waking up thirty minutes earlier than most would allow Ava the solitary she required for the special occasion. No forced smiles, no looks of pity, the halo bearer preferred to have none of those, particularly today. She brushed her teeth alone in front of the marble top sinks, spitting out the toothpaste and watching as the white bubbles swirled down the drain. Next, she washed her face, removing the veil of sleep that still covered her eyes.When she was done, she dried her cheeks with a gray towel that was a standard OCS issue, not even bothering to gaze at herself on the mirror. No, she did not even bother to turn on the lights. Brushing her teeth and washing her face in the morning were just parts of a routine that she had to get over and done with to prepare herself for this extraordinary day. The halo bearer wiped her mouth and made her way back to her room.</p><p>She felt the cold seep through the gray stone floor of the corridor, a prelude to the early morning temperature outside. If Beatrice were here, she would have already scolded Ava for going barefoot.</p><p>
  <em>“You don’t know what sort of organism would crawl through the pores of your soles.”</em>
</p><p>Her voice would be deep and stern, but her eyes would be soft, and Ava would know that she comes from a place of love. But she was not here, and today, the halo bearer wanted to feel what was real. The cold winds of dawn, the damp soil against the soles of her feet, the sharp thorns on the stems of roses she would later cut with bare hands. Today, her offering would feature no shortcuts, no easy way out. The halo bearer decided that for her, for Beatrice, she would feel everything. Every chill, every ache, every inconvenience, before she finally lets go.</p><p>She made her way outside the cradle with brown wrapping paper in hand, a pair of garden shears, and a gray canvas tote bag. The cold morning winds that made their way through the Iberian hills seeped into Ava’s joints. She would not use the halo to warm herself up this time. The matter was between her and her task, there could be no in-betweens. Today, her gift would be pure and unadulterated, a product of her mortal hands. Beatrice deserved Ava without the title of a bearer, stripped down to her meat and bones, down to every last drop of blood coursing through her veins, the velocity of the flow dictated not by the boon of the halo, but by the hope that she will meet Beatrice again. But today,she must finally let go.</p><p>The halo bearer stood in front of her rose garden, white and red bulbs that she has tended carefully since they were able to put the OCS back together after the affray at the Vatican. It was in the best interest of then the new Pope Duretti to cover up what has transpired underneath the holy city and to work with the sister warriors in order to defeat what has been lurking in the catacombs of the Necropolis for several centuries. It was an evil that was unearthed and unleashed due to the cunning of Father Vincent, and it was one they did not fully understand back then. If one were to ask the halo bearer, she would say that even now, no one in the OCS fully understands the nature of Adriel, the halo, and Divinium. The Order has seemed to sweep that gap in their knowledge under the rug because exactly a year ago, the great evil was defeated. Exactly a year ago, Adriel took with him into the abyss a part of Ava, a piece of her heart, a shard of her soul.</p><p>Mary always told Ava that she could not just cut the roses out of her own volition.</p><p>
  <em>“Those are OCS property, just because you were tasked to take care of them does not mean you can just take them whenever you want to,” Mary tried to reason out.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“But these are for Beatrice. I am going to visit her,” Ava replied, pouting.</em>
</p><p>Like Lilith with the alarm clock, Mary was silenced, and she never brought up the subject of the roses again.</p><p>Today, like that day with Mary, no one would begrudge her for cutting the roses. Today, everyone would send a smile her way, or put a hand on her shoulder. Today, Mary would not roll her eyes at her and Lilith would hold her sharp tongue. She could probably even curse like a sailor in front of the altar and Mother Superion would choose to look the other way. There would be eggshells around every space she takes up, one that the sister warriors, hardened martial artists, would be too careful to tread. Ava brushed the thought away as she snipped away at the roses’ stems with intent, tongue sticking out of her teeth. She honored each flower and laid them down carefully in two piles: a dozen for the shrine and a dozen for the mound in the churchyard.</p><p>The halo bearer walked to the mound first, where no one would bother her for hours. She rested her back against the cold slab of stone, a marker, and placed a dozen of the white roses on the loam beneath. The red roses are for the shrine, to make it look pretty. The white flowers were for the mound, clean and pure. The grass was soft against Ava’s palms. She moved her hands in a circular motion to feel the fuzzy blades, to be one with the earth, to be one with those it claimed.</p><p>“Hey, it’s me,” the halo bearer said. “I may not be able to visit you for a long while. We have not had any incidents of the demon expulsion kind in a year and I am finally leaving the Cradle tomorrow. For good. Remember the innkeeper I told you about who offered me a job when Mary and I were in Ronda? That’s where I’m headed. I called him and he said his offer still stands. It’s not much, but it’s a start. It’s what you would have wanted.”</p><p>Ava took out a thick paperback from her canvas bag. It was Moby Dick. Beatrice would have been pleased that her reading has progressed to the classics. The sister warrior would have been pleased that a year on, Ava was still trying to live, still trying to forge her path. The halo bearer opened the book to where she left off the last time that she was here, which was yesterday afternoon, and began to read aloud. She spoke each syllable, each word, each sentence with intent, making the narration matter because it would be the last.</p><p>About three hours later, she was woken by a gentle hand on her shoulder. She had dozed off while reading a part she found boring, and the side of her head that rested against the cold stone slab ached. She knew at once that it was Camila. Neither Lilith nor Mary would have the courage to approach her today.</p><p>“We’re ready if you are, Ava,” Camila said, her voice softer than usual but the halo bearer knew it was genuine. “Mother Superion is waiting for the roses to decorate the shrine.”</p><p>“Sorry, I fell asleep. I thought a tale about sperm whales would be more exciting,” Ava replied. Any other sister warrior would have told her that no apologies were required, would have patronized her, but Camila simply smiled. It was for this precise reason that she was sent for this mission. “Help me up?”</p><p>Camila extended a hand and helped the halo bearer to her feet. She took the garden sheers and the canvas bag with the book and let Ava carry the bundle of roses. She knew it what was she needed to do.</p><p>“Where is it?” Ava asked as she walked alongside her friend.</p><p>“In the transept inside the cathedral, where we held Shannon’s and Lilith’s rites,” Camila said, “and Beatrice, the last time.”</p><p>‘Right,’ Ava thought. The rites the sister warriors held a year ago was for Beatrice. It was the standard ceremony held by the OCS for a fallen sister warrior days after her death. Today’s rites was for Ava’s sake. The halo bearer knew that was the case because no second rites were ever held for Sister Shannon a year after she died. And for Lilith, well, they found out that she had not been dead after all.</p><p>The halo bearer’s heart warmed up at the thought. Admittedly, outside the circle of Mary, Lilith and Camila, Ava failed to connect with any of the other sisters at the familial level. Knowing that the convent went out of its way to conduct a ceremony that was out of protocol because they think it was what the halo bearer needed made her smile. She would miss this place.</p><p>When they approached the cathedral, Camila left Ava’s side and walked to the church’s old upright piano right beside the small shrine. Several of the shorter pews were arranged before the altar was as simple as the last one. They recycled the same blown up picture of Beatrice that they used during her first rites, a candid photo taken when she was still a noviate. Her soft brown eyes wandered to a subject that was outside the photo, her soft, pink lips curled, about to form a smile. Beatrice felt more alive in this photo than any other image she could have posed for; dynamic, inchoate, unfinished. Just like her story. A lump was caught in Ava’s throat and one of the sister warriors took the flowers from her arm in order to arrange them in little vases on the floor underneath the easel that propped up the picture.</p><p>Camila sat down on the piano seat and began to tickle the first notes of her song out of the ivory keys. The halo bearer recognized the opening lines of an RnB tune, old, by her standards.</p><p>
  <em>Games, changes and fears</em>
</p><p>
  <em>When will they go from here</em>
</p><p>
  <em>When will they stop?</em>
</p><p>
  <em>I believe that fate has brought us here</em>
</p><p>
  <em>And we should be together babe</em>
</p><p>
  <em>But we're not</em>
</p><p>Ava felt an arm snake through her shoulder and another circle her waist. It was Lilith and Mary, her remaining family, making sure she makes it through Camila’s melody.</p><p>“We allowed her to choose the song, do you not like it? We can have her change it,” Lilith offered.</p><p>Ava shook her head despite the tears that were starting to form.</p><p>“No, it’s perfect,” she replied.</p><p>
  <em>I try to say goodbye and I choke</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Try to walk away and I stumble</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Though I try to hide it, it’s clear</em>
</p><p>
  <em>My world crumbles when you are not here</em>
</p><p>“Can you do this?” this time, it was Mary who asked, concern in her voice.</p><p>“I can,” Ava replied, “I have to.”</p><p>Right after Camila was done with her song, the halo bearer disengaged herself from her friends’ hold and made her way in front of the shrine, a lone red rose in her hand. She placed the flower at the bottom of the picture and faced the sister warriors who were gathered inside the cathedral.</p><p>“I want to thank you all for doing this today. For doing this for me,” Ava started.</p><p>“I know you’re not really doing this for Beatrice. She’s not here, she can’t see all this,” she continued, gesturing to the small crowd with her hands. “I get it, you’re big on the whole afterlife, watch-over-us-from-above-thing but we all know the truth about that, don’t we, ha ha ha.”</p><p>Mother Superion cleared her throat and looked away.</p><p>“Sorry, you know I’m not really great with this speech thing. I say whatever comes to mind and you all hate me for it, then I’ll be the TALK of town, haha! Get it? Get it?” Ava said. Nobody laughed.</p><p>“I just wanted to do this for her, one last time, before I leave. I know I only had six months with her, but she is the love of my life,” the halo bearer said, now more seriously. “She has touched my life only briefly and now I have to go on and spend the rest of it without her.”</p><p>When Beatrice died in the big battle against Adriel a year ago, it seemed like Ava would fall into her old ways. She had wanted to go away, had wanted to disappear, had wanted to leave the place that would remind her of Beatrice at every nook and cranny. She had given everything to the mission, had been willing to die for it at one point, yet it took the one thing that was the most important to her in return. She had offered the mission her all and she thought it was time to think of herself once again.</p><p>Yet Mother Superion, Mary, and even Lilith begged. They begged Ava to stay, begged her to wait and find out if evil still lurked in corners, bidding its time to be unleashed. She was, after all, the bearer of an important relic, one which the Order had protected for ages. But with no more demons to fight, the halo was nothing but an artifact, a vestige of a holy hoax. And so Ava gave them a year. She would wait a year until she would finally start her life. A year to honor Beatrice’ body in the ground. A year to finish what she started.</p><p>“But I want to thank you all for giving me the chance to be part of something, something big, something that’s not just about me,” Ava continued. “Thank you for accepting me and Beatrice and what we shared. It means the world to her, even if it was just for the last six months of her life.”</p><p>“That’s all, I, I’m gonna take the lessons I learned here with me for the rest of my life and I wouldn’t forget all of your kindness, and,” the halo bearer said, sniffling, then, staring at Mother Superion and then Lilith, “everything else in between.”</p><p>She concluded, and walked hastily into Camila’s waiting arms. Ava buried her face in the crook of her friend’s neck as the sister warrior ran a hand up and down her spine.</p><p>“Well, we’ve heard some heartwarming yet heartbreaking words from Ava, why don’t we share some memories we have of both of her and Beatrice? Let me go first,” it was Mary, taking over what the halo bearer could not finish. Ava was thankful for the sister warrior’s quick thinking. Mary had, in many ways, been the older sister she never had. Her love was tough, but it was genuine and caring. She will miss the woman.</p><p>Mary was recounting the first time Beatrice found out that she kicked the halo bearer off a cliff when Ava began to laugh again, her head resting on Camila’s shoulder and her arm around the sister warrior’s waist. Lilith went after Mary, recounting the time she caught the halo bearer sneaking into Beatrice’ room at night, and then Mother Superion, who finally revealed that she put Ava and Beatrice on operations together on purpose. The halo bearer gave the older woman a hug after her speech and watched as the rest of the sister warriors gave their testimonies one by one.</p><p>“Ava,” Lilith spoke once again, as soon as the last of the speeches was over. “The sisters and I have a little something for you, something that we think every young girl on the verge of a journey must have.”</p><p>One of the sister warriors, a young woman that Ava has only spoken to more than a dozen times, brought a box wrapped in silver and handed it to the halo bearer, who took it with both hands.</p><p>“Well go on, open it!” Camila urged her. “It’s just a little something, but I hope you like it. We all pitched in.”</p><p>Ava tore open the wrapper, the bright scraps of paper landing in a mess around her feet, and Lilith clutched her heart at the sight. A black, Nike shoe box was revealed to the halo bearer, which lid she lifted eagerly. Inside was a pair of brand new Nike React sneakers in the loudest colorway available.</p><p>“You were eyeing them in the mall the other day,” Mary said. “We thought you would need a comfortable pair for all the miles that you are going to cover from now on.”</p><p>“Oh, thank you, Mary,” Ava said with a huge grin, flinging herself to her friend’s arms to give her a hug. She felt strong arms envelope her body in an instant.</p><p>“I’m going to miss you, baby girl,” Mary said, whispering it to the halo bearer’s ear.</p><p>Camila sat by the upright piano once again to lead the sister warriors in a chorus of songs, each livelier than the last. It was a testament to how much Mother Superion has changed her attitude around Ava. She would never have approved otherwise.</p><p>The gathering ended at about eight, and Ava made the excuse that she needed to be alone in her room to pack for tomorrow’s journey. Everyone understood and allowed her retire early, but not without another round of hugs from the sister warriors.</p><p>“Come to me before you leave tomorrow, okay? I’d like to see you to the gate,” Camila said. She escorted Ava back to the dormitory and to the corridor where the halo bearer’s room was located. They stood in front of Ava’s doorway. She already had a foot in inside the room assigned to the warrior nun.</p><p>“Of course. I would never leave without saying goodbye,” Ava replied with her famous smile. “I’ll see you later, Camila.”</p><p> </p><p>xxx</p><p> </p><p>“What are you doing?” Mary heard a voice from behind her. It was Lilith. After the rites that morning, Mother Superion allowed the sister warriors to have the entire day off, and Mary disappeared into her room to clean and oil her shotguns, until she reappeared for lunch, only to disappear from the mess hall once again when she was done eating.</p><p>“Tending the roses, can’t you see?” Mary replied, not even turning to greet the newcomer.</p><p>“That’s Ava’s job,” Lilith said.</p><p>“Well, someone else has to do it now, seeing as she’s leaving tomorrow,” Mary replied. “Might as well get a head start.”</p><p>Lilith sighed and stepped around the bed of roses to make her way to the other side and face her friend. Mary was crouched on the ground, ridding the plot of weeds with her gloved hands.</p><p>“You’ve been hiding all morning after the ceremony. Something is the matter with you. Speak,” Lilith said. Mary sighed, removed the peach gardener’s gloves from her hands and threw them on the loam beside her friend’s feet.</p><p>“I was rehearsing how to say this, but if you insist on doing this now,” Mary started, finally looking Lilith in the eye. There was an expression of confusion on the taller woman’s face. “I’m thinking of leaving the Cradle as well.”</p><p>“But why?” the furrows that already featured on the nun’s forehead deepened further. “The OCS is your home.”</p><p>“The mission was my home. The OCS no longer even functions, the evil has been defeated for an entire year, I have avenged Shannon and there is nothing left for me here at the Cat’s Cradle,” Mary replied. “I am not a nun. I can’t pray and sing hymns and intercede for mortal souls all day. That’s not me, or else I would have taken the vows long ago.”</p><p>“What about Ava, she’s not a nun as well,” Lilith reasoned.</p><p>“You seem to be forgetting that she is leaving tomorrow,” Mary replied. “Yes, she stayed for a year, but we all know that’s not because she knows she is the bearer of a powerful relic that couldn’t fall in the wrong hands. She stayed because Beatrice’ body is buried here. Now that she has let go of her, she is finally leaving.”</p><p>“How about me, then?” Lilith said, a tinge of hurt in her voice. “Am I not your family?”</p><p>Something in the way she looked told Mary that there was more to what she was saying, a prelude to an unspoken conversation they’ve had several times. Mary knew there was no point, there was no way it could ever happen. Lilith was as committed to her vow to God as she was committed to the mission, even confusing the two at some point and, until recently, thinking that both were mutually exclusive. The last time Mary tried to share someone with God, it broke her heart.</p><p>“You’re a nun,” Mary replied.</p><p>“Shannon was a nun, Beatrice was a nun,” Lilith retorted.</p><p>“And look what happened to them. Look at what happened to me after Shannon died,” Mary said, her voice rising a little. “Look at Ava now. When was the last time you heard her make a pun since Beatrice died? The last time you saw her smile, really smile?”</p><p>“I don’t know if I can lose you as well, the way I lost Shannon,” Mary said with finality.</p><p>“So you just choose to not care about me that way, just choose to leave?” Lilith challenged. There was an edge to the sister warrior’s voice.</p><p>“I knew what you shared with Shannon. It is not my desire to replace her, like it wasn’t my desire either for her to die so that I could be halo bearer,” Lilith began. “I just want to be here for you now. You can’t just leave me-“</p><p>Lilith continued, but stopped as soon as she saw the expression on Mary’s face change. It seems like her friend was no longer listening to what she was saying.</p><p>“Lilith, what time is it?” she asked. There was an annoyed look on her face at having been interrupted just as she was about to bare her soul, but she humored her friend nonetheless, eyeing her thin leather-band wristwatch to give her the time.</p><p>“It’s five minutes to three, why?” Lilith replied.</p><p>Instead of speaking, Mary pointed behind her with an awestruck look on her face that Lilith rarely sees. The taller woman craned her neck to take a look at what caused the seemingly sudden fear in her friend’s features. The moment she saw it, she took a step back, almost falling on her behind on the bed of roses beneath. Luckily, Mary’s hands were there to catch her, strong fingers gripping the back of each of her arms.</p><p>Before the pair, the horizon was familiar: the same orange trees lining the walled edge of the cradle, the same rocky, rolling hills beyond the walls as far as the eyes can see. Only it was not. There was a flux, an anomaly of violent streaks of fiery red light and black smoke forming a circular barrier of about two meters in diameter like a hole on the horizon. It was dark on the other side of the hole, the stars above the Iberian Peninsula were visible and the wind was blowing harsher. Beyond the red and black borders of the circular plane, the sun stood stark and bright.</p><p>“You recognize those colors?” Mary asked.</p><p>“Yes,” Lilith replied. It was the same colors that would paint a space whenever a Tarask appears from another dimension, the same colors she disappeared into when she was dragged into the abyss, and whenever she would teleport from one place to another.</p><p>In the middle of the circular plane, a figure in black loomed from the night side, emerging from the shadows of the orange trees in the dark. Mary was unarmed, and so was Lilith, but the sister warrior never needed weapons anyway, not since she came back.</p><p>Mary ran around the bed to join Lilith on the other side, making sure that none of Ava’s handiwork were trampled upon.</p><p>“Get behind me, Mary,” Lilith commanded. If she had her shotguns, she would have protested, but Mary was smarter now, and did as her friend said. The pair got on their fighting stance, ready for who was charging at them from the other side.</p><p>It was a figure dressed in black from head to two, except for the silver material that was on their face, and a bronze circular object in their right hand. Lilith thought that the stranger was holding a chakram, and so she stepped in front of Mary, fully shielding her friend’s body with her own.</p><p>“Ready?” Lilith asked.</p><p>“Yeah,” Mary said breathlessly.</p><p>“Follow my lead,” Lilith said. They would disable the stranger, a protocol for deescalating uncharted situations.</p><p>The circular plane in front of them was slowly converging to its middle as the stranger made a beeline for them. It took only a few more seconds, and just as the figure in black made it to the day side before nighttime disappeared into into a singular point of red light and black smoke, and was gone. The orange trees within Lilith’s sight return to their spot under the afternoon sun.</p><p>The stranger lied sprawled on her front on the grass a few feet away from the bed of roses and where Lilith stood. Mary emerged from behind her and began to approach the stationary body.</p><p>“Careful,” Lilith hissed. “This person is armed.”</p><p>Mary was already a few steps away from the stranger when she stopped.</p><p>“I don’t think they’re carrying a weapon, Lilith,” Mary replied. “Not in the usual sense.”</p><p>She crouched near the body to inspect it. The stranger was wearing the black leather habit of a sister warrior, the multiple black leather straps that criss-crossed on her back were fastened in the middle by what was unmistakably the circular insignia of the Order of the Cruciform Sword.</p><p>On their hand, the circular object that Lilith mistook for a chakram, was a halo. It’s familiar bronze color was coated in what looked like a thick film of fresh blood.</p><p>Mary turned the stranger over. Their body remained motionless, going with the flow of the sister warrior’s hand, but the grip on the halo remained strong.</p><p>Lilith gasped. In front of the stranger’s habit, and secured by a leather brace, were a variety of weapons: different daggers, and a collection of kunai and shuriken. There was a hand pistol still inside its holster, and a knife secured on each of her boots. The silver material that covered their face was a mask made of chainmail, the cruciform sword embossed in the middle.</p><p>It was Lilith, who was finally beside the body, who lifted the metal veil off the stranger’s face. She gasped, and both her and Mary took a step back in recognition of who it resembled.</p><p>“Mary,” Lilith began, dread in her voice. “The halo. This stranger has the halo. Something must have happened to Ava.”</p><p> </p><p>xxx</p><p> </p><p>“Ava! Open up!” the halo bearer heard Camila’s shrill voice from where she sat on her bead. Pieces of paper were littered all around her and she avoided stepping on any of them as she approached the door to open it for her friend.</p><p>At this point, Camila was banging her fists incessantly against the wood.</p><p>“Hey, where’s the fire?” Ava greeted her friend.</p><p>“Oh!” Camila replied, as if shocked to find the halo bearer in her own room. “Are you alright?” she said, inspecting Ava’s face, and then turning her around to feel her back.</p><p>“How’s the halo?” she asked.</p><p>“Still warm when I’m cold, why? what’s happening?” Ava replied, turning around to face her friend with a confused look on her face. Camila sighed with relief.</p><p>“What’s going on?” Ava asked, her brows nor furrowed in a confused knit.</p><p>“Nothing, I,” Camila began, and then peeked at the rest of the room behind the halo bearer’s shoulder. She saw the pieces of paper on the bed.</p><p>“What are those?” she asked. Ava stepped aside to let her in and the sister warrior approached the bed, picking on of the pieces of paper with her hand.</p><p>“Those are Beatrice’ letters,” Ava replied from behind Camila. “She was helping me with my penmanship and to practice, I would leave her little notes whenever she or I would go on missions without the other and we would have to be separated. I told her she never had to reply as I was just practicing but, she always did anyway.”</p><p>“We never had that many photos together, those few I had of her were destroyed during the-“ Ava tried to continue but Camila placed a hand on her arm.</p><p>“You don’t have to explain,” Camila said. Ava took the letter that was in her friend’s hand and sat down on the bed.</p><p>“What I wouldn’t give to see her again, Camila. She doesn’t even visit me in my dreams,” the halo bearer said. “I don’t want to lose my memories of how she looked like, you know how my memories are not as great as her’s. She’s Sister Photographic Memory. Maybe if it were the other way around and it was me who died, this wouldn’t be a problem for her at all.”</p><p>Instead of speaking, Camila stroked Ava’s back gently.</p><p>“I just want to see her again,” the halo bearer said, looking up. “I would give everything just to see her again even just once.”</p><p>Camila blinked. She felt uneasy seeing Ava’s glassy eyes, like her habit suddenly tightened around her throat and she could’t breathe.</p><p>“What is it?” Ava said, quickly sensing her friend’s discomfort.</p><p>“Nothing! I have to go,” Camila excused herself quickly. “I have to find Lilith and Mary.”</p><p>“What really is going on?” Ava asked.</p><p>“Nothing! Nothing you should worry your pretty little head about,” Camila replied, “bye Ava, I have some errands to do.”</p><p>The sister warrior turned back and ran out of the warrior nun’s room, closing the door behind her and leaving behind a confused halo bearer in her wake.</p><p> </p><p>xxx</p><p> </p><p>“Ava is fine, halo intact,” Camila announced breathlessly as soon as she got back to Mary and Lilith.The sister warriors were huddled together inside Beatrice’ room, the only room in the dormitory of the convent that was unoccupied. Adriel was ultimately defeated when Beatrice died a year ago, and there was really no reason to fill her position with a new recruit. Aside from Ava and the novitiates tasked to clean every facility of the Cat’s Cradle, no person has really been inside the room since the last time Beatrice lived in the space.</p><p>“Did she suspect that anything is amiss?” Lilith asked. She bit her nails as she stared at the person now lying in their dead friend’s bed. After a quick discussion with Mary, they decided the this room was the best place to hide the stranger, away from anyone who might pry but still within the walls of the Cat’s Cradle so that they might monitor the situation easily. It was Mary who wrestled the halo from the stranger’s strong grip and Lilith who carried the limp body on her shoulders and teleported them to the room.</p><p>Mary alerted Camila discretely, apprising her of what to expect in her dead friend’s room, sparing her from the shock when she finally sees the stranger with her own eyes. Together, they removed the weapons from their different hiding spots in battle habit. It was a task which Camila, as the custodian of the armory, expertly undertook. Lilith removed the stranger’s shoes and head covering, allowing the person’s jet black hair to flow freely down their shoulders. Afterwards, Camila brought in a basin and several wash cloths, and the sister warriors began cleaning the wounds and the dirt on every part of the stranger’s skin that was exposed.</p><p>The halo rested safely on top of a throw pillow that they placed inside Beatrice’ empty closet and out of the stranger’s reach. It was Mary who cleaned it of blood after Lilith extracted about a vial’s worth of the thick liquid for testing.</p><p>When all of those tasks were completed, the three sat around the bed on the stiff wooden chairs issued for every room in the dormitory and watched the stranger silently, observing any signs of movement. The person lay steady yet breathing, their chest rising and falling to a weak rhythm. The stranger’s head was partially tilted to the right in the direction where Lilith was sitting, the mouth slightly agape and letting out soft snores. The tall woman observed the stranger’s face. She felt a pinch in her heart upon realizing how similar they slept with her dead friend.</p><p>It was Camila who broke the silence.</p><p>“If Ava is fine, then what was on this person’s hand was a different halo,” she began.</p><p>“We still don’t know that,” Lilith replied.</p><p>“So, what do we do, we take it from them? It’s theirs, they brought it here from wherever they came from. We have no right,” Camila reasoned.</p><p>“Camila, if you saw where this person came from, you wouldn’t speak so surely,” Mary remarked.</p><p>“We don’t know what it is. We don’t know if it’s even a halo. For all we know, it merely resembles one,” Lilith said. “We are not taking it. Just preventing this person from having their hands on it. Besides, how sure are we that it’s theirs? A halo is supposed to be in someone’s back. Why would they have it in their hand? Why is it full of blood? It could have been stolen from the rightful bearer.”</p><p>“This is Beatrice we are talking about, she would never do that,” Camila reasoned, gesturing at the stranger on the bed with both hands from where she sat at the foot of the bed.</p><p>“That’s not Beatrice, Camila. She might look like her, but do not be fooled,” Lilith snapped. “Beatrice has been dead for an entire year. We buried her in the church backyard.”</p><p>Mary cleared her throat, trying to diffuse the tension. She sat on a chair opposite Lilith and had a foot propped up on the bed.</p><p>“The most important question now is, when do we tell Ava?” she asked.</p><p>“We don’t,” Lilith replied instantly.</p><p>“What?” Mary replied, her voice incredulous. “Someone who looks like Beatrice is bound to wander the halls of the Cat’s Cradle and you are saying we shouldn’t tell her, for a lack of a better term, widow? Or are you proposing that we keep this person locked up as well?”</p><p>“What’s the point?” Lilith replied. “Ava is leaving tomorrow anyway.”</p><p>“That’s not fair,” Camila said.</p><p>“How about this? We don’t tell Ava until we’re sure who or what this person is. Despite what you think of me, I do not want Ava to get hurt. Did you not listen to her speech earlier? The girl is only starting to accept that Beatrice is truly gone. To see a person in her likeness might not be good for her at this point in time,” Lilith compromised.</p><p>“Ava is an adult. Who are you to tell what might not or might be good for her?” Mary said.</p><p>Lilith opened her mouth, about to retort, when the stranger stirred on the bed. With her eyes still closed, her fingers tightened into a grip, seemingly searching for the object that was in her now weightless hand. Her palm grasped on the empty bedsheets in search for the solid object. When she confirmed that the halo was gone, she sat up immediately, taking in the room wide-eyed. The stranger got up on her feet at the same time that the three sister warriors did. The sister warriors saw the person feel their battle habit for the weapons that were no longer in place.</p><p>“We disarmed you, for your safety and our own,” Mary said.</p><p>“Where is the halo,” the stranger spoke. All three sister warriors were taken aback. She sounded just like Beatrice.</p><p>“You know about halos?” Camila asked.</p><p>“Of course I do. I amSister Beatrice of the Order of the Cruciform Sword,” the stranger replied, standing proudly. “Just like you all of you are. You’re Lilith, Camila and Mary.”</p><p>“Something is not right,” she added.</p><p>“Damn right, something isn’t,” Mary replied.</p><p>“Do you know where you are?” Camila said, her voice friendly.</p><p>The stranger who called herself Sister Beatrice looked around the room, trying to discern the strange from the familiar. She swallowed the lump in her throat, and Lilith saw her Adam’s apple bob up and down, something that Beatrice always did whenever she felt that she was not in charge of the situation.</p><p>“I’m in my room in the Cat’s Cradle,” she replied. “Only, it’s not really my room, is it?”</p><p>She approached the plain wooden bedside table. The small capiz lamp that was there was unplugged and has not been lit in a year. In front of the lamp was a framed picture of Ava, the halo bearer’s first professional photo, wearing the standard blue sweatshirt issued by the OCS. The warrior nun had her hair up in a half bun, her famous grin displayed on her lips.</p><p>The stranger took the photo in her hands and examined it, tracing Ava’s features with a finger.</p><p>“Why is there a picture of Ava here?” the stranger asked, the expression on her face unreadable. “And where is her halo? The one I had in my hand?”</p><p>“The halo you had in your hand, you say it was Ava’s,” Lilith said suspiciously, speaking for the first time since the stranger woke up. “Why do you have it, then?”</p><p>“Lilith,” the stranger said, addressing the taller woman directly. “You took it out of her back.”</p><p>“And why would Lilith do that?” Mary asked.</p><p>The stranger stared at the three with a confused look on her face, and then fear, followed by sadness.</p><p>“Because Ava is dead,” she said, dropping her eyes to look at the framed photograph in her hand once more.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. The Stone in the Churchyard</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <em>“What are you doing? The mission is just overnight, you look like you’re packing all of your life’s belongings,” Ava said as she sauntered inside Beatrice’ room after phasing through the wooden door. She saw the nun’s clothes neatly folded on the surface of her bed. Beatrice piled her belongings, a set of gray and black shirts and a few pairs of slacks, neatly inside a suitcase that she had open beside her. She was, herself, out of her habit, her raven hair flowing freely down a black button down shirt similar to the ones she was arranging inside the bag. The halo bearer approached the sister warrior’s closet. It was bare.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“Oh,” she said, and then turned around to face the nun. “You are packing all of your life’s belongings. Care to tell me what’s happening?”</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Beatrice stopped what she was doing, lining her suitcase with one final pair of gray socks before facing Ava.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“My father, he found out about us. A cousin saw us when we were in Malaga,” Beatrice started. When she realized that she could not bear to meet the halo bearer’s eyes, she stared at the pair of socks she just placed inside her bag as if it was the most interesting thing in the world. “My father was just on the phone with Mother Superion, he told her what my cousin saw, what we’ve been doing. He will arrive tomorrow evening to come and take me away. There was another sister in the office with her when he called. You know how fast gossip travels here. Six months ago, only you knew who I truly am, and now, the whole of the convent knows I’m gay!”</em>
</p><p>
  <em>The last few words came out with more force than Beatrice would have wanted nor could control. Her whole life, it has always been about control. Minding her posture, placing her hands behind her back, coloring inside the edges, reigning in her desires. Ever since she met Ava, the tiny threads of her tightly woven life started to unravel in unimaginable directions. Now, she was beginning to think she might have gone too far.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to raise my voice,” Beatrice said.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“That’s okay, I’m sorry you have to go through this,” Ava said, approaching her lover. She placed a palm on one cheek and Beatrice sank into the touch, despite herself.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“So what do we do? Should I pack as well before he arrives? You said that he will arrive tomorrow evening, that still gives us time to complete the mission tonight, right?” Ava said.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Beatrice straightened her spine at those words, leaving Ava’s hand hanging in the air.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“Ava, you can’t leave the Cat’s Cradle. You are the halo bearer,” Beatrice said. “I’m not packing my belongings so that I can get away from my father. I’m coming with him, and the thing he hates the most aside from his daughter liking women is inefficiency. He’d like my suitcase to be packed and ready when he arrives.”</em>
</p><p>
  <em>The halo bearer took a step back. There was a stricken look on her face that slowly broke into a wide grin. Beatrice couldn’t believe that she was hearing her chuckling.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“That’s a good one, Beatrice, I never knew you had it in you,” Ava said, tapping the sister warrior on the back.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“I’m having a hard time right now, it would help if you didn’t treat everything as a joke,” Beatrice replied. Ava seemingly never being able to take anything seriously was one of the traits that drew the sister warrior to her. Yet now, she was getting on her nerves. And her nerves had been on fire all day.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>The halo bearer dropped her smile.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“What are you saying?” Ava asked, her voice now strained.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“I can’t, I can’t do this anymore, Ava, I need my family,” Beatrice replied, blinking away the tears that were starting to form. “It has been a fun six months, the best of my life, if I’m being honest. The dream. But it’s time to wake up.”</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“What are you saying?” Ava repeated.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“Ava, you deserve someone who would fight for you,” Beatrice said, turning away from the halo bearer to return to her chore. “Someone who would not run away, someone who’d choose you.”</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“Then choose me,” Ava replied. Beatrice felt warm arms close around her waist. The halo bearer clung to her desperately, and the sister warrior felt hot tears seep through the back of her shirt. She despised herself further for making Ava go through this. If only she hadn’t opened herself up to her all those months ago back in ArqTech, did not allow herself to be so vulnerable in that face of a Warrior Nun’s story so similar to her own, Ava would have been just a friend. Saying her goodbyes now wouldn’t hurt this much.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“I can’t, Ava. I told you, I need my family,” Beatrice replied. She placed her fingers on Ava’s hands that met in front of her belly and pried them away gently, disengaging herself from the embrace to turn around in her arms and face her once more.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“I thought the OCS was your family. If you won’t stay for me, then what about the mission?” the halo bearer pleaded. Her eyes were glassy, her lips already trembling. A familiar blush crept up her cheeks, a sign that a wail was about to escape her throat.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“I have a real family, Ava. They depend on me,” Beatrice replied. “I can’t disappoint them.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“Depend on you for what? Your parents are in the Sunday Times Rich List!” Ava said. The lights in Beatrice’ room started to flicker at the halo bearer’s outburst of emotion.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“No, they’re not, Ava. Don’t blow this out of proportions,” Beatrice said. “You know my background, there are expectations, I can’t just turn back on those just for, just for...”</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“Just for someone like me? Is that it? Uneducated, can’t even write three straight sentences without having to ask you for help, is that it?” Ava replied. She took a step back and stared at the floor.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“That’s not fair,” Beatrice said.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“And this, do you think this is fair?” Ava replied. “You make me fall for you, give me the happiest six months of my life even though we live in secret, and then what? You just up and run at the tiniest inconvenience.” The halo bearer snapped her fingers.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“This is not an inconvenience, Ava. This is my life. This is the life you are going to get entangled with if we don’t end this now,” Beatrice replied. “I have made my decision.”</em>
</p><p>
  <em>The halo bearer was silent for a while. When she spoke again, it was inaudible.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“What was that?” Beatrice asked.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“I said I hate you,” Ava said. Gone was the ever present warmth in her voice and those five words sent chills up Beatrice’ spine.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“You don’t mean that,” Beatrice treaded carefully.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“You once told me that I am thoughtless and self-centered, but not dishonest,” Ava replied. “I never lie, Beatrice.”</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Caught off-guard, the sister warrior blinked. She took the handle of her leather suitcase and picked at it nervously.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“I’m joining the mission later. The plan has been set and it’s too late to change the details,” Beatrice began. “It’s such an intricate plan, I would hate if we go through with it with disdain for each other. Feelings might deter us from working effectively as a team.”</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“I don’t want you in the mission,” Ava said. “I don’t want to see you ever again.”</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“When we return tomorrow, you’ll be gone with your father and back to your grand old life,” the halo bearer added.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“That’s not for you to decide,” Beatrice replied.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“You will honor that request if it’s the last thing you would do for me,” Ava said. Her tone was final, her arms crossed in front of her chest as if challenging the sister warrior to resist. When there was no reply, the halo bearer turned on her heels, leaving Beatrice alone in the room that was a little colder than it was just ten minutes ago.</em>
</p><p> </p><p>xxx</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>Beatrice stared at the alarm clock on her bedside table, a replica of a rooster that Ava got for her when they were on a mission together in Barcelos. It was half past two in the morning. In a few hours, the whole convent will stir and wake, yet she has not slept a single wink. It was not like the sister warrior to sleep in so late, unless there was a mission. That was precisely why she kept tossing and turning in her bed: Ava threw her out of the mission. The halo bearer no longer wanted to see her. If all goes according to plan, Ava, Lilith, Mary, Camila; and the sister warrior they took with them in her stead, Sister Monica, would be back by ten in the morning. By then, she should be long gone, as per Ava’s request. Beatrice decided she would leave the Cat’s Cradle quietly, take the five a.m. bus to town, and stay in a quaint hostel where she would contact her father and wait for him there.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>She eyed the letter she wrote for Ava now lying neatly folded up by her bedside table. The plain yellow ruled sheet is weighed down by her St. Beatrice of Silva amulet, a present when she took the vows, now a parting gift. The sister warrior was about to take the letter and read it for the tenth time to check if it conveyed everything that she wanted to say when she heard fervent knocks on her wooden door. She jumped out of bed to open it. The sister warrior was still wearing her black fighter habit, head covering and all, still hoping that Ava would change her mind and let her come. The team left without saying goodbye.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>On the other side of the door was Mother Superion, a stricken look on her usually stoic face.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“Sister Beatrice, your weapons, quickly, please,” the older woman said.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“What is it, Mother? What happened?” Beatrice asked. She opened the door wider and rushed to her closet to get the brace full of her weapons. Mother Superion helped her fasten the straps at the back. The sister warrior then inserted two knives on the leather sheath of each boot and followed the older woman out of the door.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“It’s Ava, they’ve been ambushed, like the team was expected to come,” Mother Superion said. She lead Beatrice through the dimly lit corridors of the Cat’s Cradle. The pair took a long, winding route that the sister warrior knew led down to the crypt. “Adriel was there leading a horde of wraith demons that preyed on the townspeople. It would have been a massacre if not for Ava’s quick thinking.”</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“Adriel escaped,” Mother Superion added.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“But why are we headed down the crypt?” Beatrice asked. Before the older woman could answer, a sister warrior approached the pair, still in her nightgown.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“I was told to come and find you,” the sister warrior said.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“Sister Margaret, will you find Michael and tell him to meet us down in the crypt, please?” Mother Superion said, addressing the newcomer.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“Of course, Mother Superion,” Sister Margaret replied. She acknowledged Beatrice with a nod before setting off to her task.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“Michael? Why are you sending for Michael?” Beatrice asked once Mother Superion starting walking again. It’s not like she did not know the answer to the question. She just wanted the truth to come out of the older woman’s mouth. Make it real. Official.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>The story goes that Michael was a little boy who had wandered near the Cat’s Cradle about fifteen years ago. Nobody knew where he came from and they couldn’t find any records of his family or relatives. The Order of the Cruciform Sword resolved to adopt and raise the child, training him to handle Divinium and to transfer the halo from one bearer to another. Michael was already a grown man when Beatrice met him for the first time when she was a new recruit. As far as she knew, Michael has never had the chance to apply his training in a real situation. It was, after all, under peculiar circumstances that the halo was transferred from Shannon to Ava.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“I’m sorry, Beatrice. You know we have a protocol,” Mother Superion said. “Just in case,” she added.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>The pair stopped before the mammoth, ancient door of the crypt.The older woman pushed the heavy wooden door open. Just at the same time, Mary’s head popped out of the crypt’s backdoor. She was carrying a pair of legs, followed by Lilith who was carrying the limp body under each arm. Camila took the team’s flank, crossbow at the ready, together with Sister Monica with her gun in hand.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Mary and Lilith deposited Ava carefully on on the white marble top table in the middle of the crypt as Sister Monica lit the torches that lined the walls, illuminating the dreary place with a warm, yellow glow.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>The halo bearer looked disheveled and pale. Her brown hair stuck in several places. Ava’s battle habit was torn in several places where shrapnels of glowing Divinium were stuck. Her breathing was labored and the sounds that came out of her mouth were hoarse and inaudible. Beatrice saw that one of the glowing shrapnels was half buried on the side of her throat. She rushed to the halo bearer’s side and took her face in her hands. Ava looked at Beatrice wide eyed. She opened her mouth to speak but the syllables that came out were gurgled and unrecognizable.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>The doctor came rushing through the front door of the crypt, Sister Elizabeth, who, like Sister Margaret a while ago, was still in her night clothes. She had a wide, brown leather satchel in hand. She walked swiftly to Ava’s other side, assessing the damage.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“You have got to get it all out before it kills her,” Beatrice addressed the doctor. It was not like her to address her elders with less courtesy. Yet the love of her life was writhing in pain and she was desperate. There was no room for cordiality.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Ava groaned.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“You’re strong, you’re going to pull through,” Beatrice whispered to the halo bearer’s ear, kneeling down beside the girl and touching her forehead with her own.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“Get the pieces out so she can heal,” Beatrice addressed Sister Elizabeth once again. The doctor looked at the sister warrior with tender eyes, almost out of pity.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“Your organs are pierced. Liver, spleen. Several of these shards are keeping you from bleeding out,” Sister Elizabeth said, her veined hands hovering above the wounds.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“If I remove them, it could kill her,” she added, addressing the entire room.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“Can you give her something for the pain?” Lilith asked. The doctor nodded. She settled her bag beside the halo bearer and opened it, taking a small bottle and a syringe out. Ava’s coughing has gotten worse, each cough that racked through her lungs buried the shrapnel deeper into her throat.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“We’ve seen worse, haven’t we?” Beatrice asked Mary. The sister warrior shook her head sadly.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“Beatrice,” Lilith started.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“Don’t say it, Lilith, don’t even think about it,” Beatrice replied. Six months ago, Beatrice would have thought that this was Lilith’s ambition of becoming a halo bearer speaking. Nowadays, the sister warrior no longer had a need for a relic to be embedded in her back in order to become supernatural. Coming back after getting dragged by a tarask into another dimension has afforded her powers to envy that of a halo bearer’s. No, this was just Lilith speaking out of her fervent commitment to the mission, despite her friend dying on the marble top table in front of her.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“You think I want this? It’s not up to us, there’s a protocol,” Lilith replied.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Protocol, it was the second time Beatrice was hearing the word in a span of minutes; first, from Mother Superion, and then now, Lilith. This time, protocol meant that Beatrice would be the next halo bearer, that Michael would take the one thing that was still keeping the love of her life alive and implant it on her back.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>There was a distant bang and the sister warriors jumped out of their skins.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“I’ll go check it out,” it was Camila who spoke. She approached Ava on the table.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“I’ll miss you, Ava,” she said, before planting a kiss on her friend’s forehead. A tear fell on the halo bearer’s cheek when Camila stood up once again. The sister warrior made her way out of the crypt.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“Sounds like the fight followed us here,” Lilith said. “Beatrice, I’m sorry. There is no time. We have to do this now or it might be too late.”</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“Where the hell is Michael?” Mary said, looking around the tiny room.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Another crash, this time, the sound was nearer.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“Probably a tarask,” Lilith surmised. “The villagers possessed by the wraith demons, they don’t have enough artillery to blow up a wall.”</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“The other sisters would hold them off,” Beatrice reasoned.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“Not for long,” Mother Superion replied. “And if they could act fast, the convent is still asleep, Beatrice.”</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“Then sound the bells! Wake everyone up!” Beatrice pleaded desperately. Mother Superion gave Beatrice a kind look, an expression seldom seen on her face, before nodding at Sister Monica. The sister warrior ran out of the crypt in haste in order to sound the bells and warn her sisters of what was coming.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“Beatrice, you know what needs to happen,” Lilith said once again, her tone pleading. Of course, she knew. She was supposed to be the smart one. Cold. Calculating. Yet she could not bear to say it, could not bear to give her blessings when even she did not know if she had that right. She looked at Ava, blood coming out of her mouth. The halo bearer nodded at her.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“She’s right,” Mary whispered to Beatrice.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“This is Ava. She’s our family, she’s our friend. She’s my...she’s my...,” even then, Beatrice did not have the courage to tell the world who Ava was to her. A look passed on the halo bearer’s face, the same one the Beatrice saw when she broke the news about leaving her and the Cat’s Cradle. “I’m not going to give up on her.”</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Outside, the sound of stone walls being torn apart came nearer, the roar of an otherwordly creature more audible. Beatrice heard the ringing of the bells, and the sound of artillery exchanged by the sister warriors who were already awake.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“B eeat riiiice,” Ava struggled to speak, it was barely a whisper. The sister warrior took the halo bearer’s head back into her hands.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“Hey, shhhhh, I’m not going to let them take it out of you,” Beatrice replied. The halo bearer smiled back, struggling as she did so. She lifted her right arm, heavy and fatigued, and placed her hand on top of her own chest, folding her thumb underneath so that only four of her fingers were showing.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“In this life of the next,” Beatrice said one last time. Ava took one long look at her, before her own pupils turned out of focus, the light in her eyes gone.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“Oh Ava!” Beatrice wailed, throwing her entire torso on top of the halo bearer’s lifeless body. Her back shook, hot tears now streaming freely down her cheeks and into Ava’s stationary face. Beatrice’ words of request for absolution were lost in the halo bearer’s entangled hair, sticky with blood.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Another loud crash, another roar. The Cat’s Cradle shook in it’s foundation, the dust that has settled inside the convent for centuries trickled to the floor.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“Beatrice,” Lilith repeated.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“She knows,” Mary replied in the sister warrior’s defense. Beatrice stood up from where she was kneeling beside Ava, wiping away the trail of tears that forged their way down her cheeks.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“I’m ready to be the bearer,” she said. It was a responsibility she had decided to give up just hours ago upon hearing the news of her father. Now, it seemed like the Beatrice that was indebted to her family, the Beatrice that was still afraid of falling out of her father’s favor, had died along with Ava.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“Where the hell is Michael,” Mary said desperately. “The boy has one job.”</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“There might be no time to wait for him,” Lilith said, approaching Ava’s body. She looked at Mother Superion for permission and the older woman nodded. She turned the halo bearer’s body around gently and with all the care she could afford the world. “I’ll take it out, help me with her clothes.”</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Mary stepped towards the body with a knife in hand, digging the blade into the battle habit to expose the skin of her back. The halo glowed faintly underneath Ava’s circular scar, perhaps sensing the presence of its next bearer.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Lilith raised her right hand, black talons protruding out of each finger.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“In this life or the next, Ava,” she said, before digging her nails into the halo bearer’s back. She felt for the metal’s edge, closing her finger’s around the relic and pulling it out of her friend’s back. It glowed brighter, finally free from its lifeless shell. Beatrice felt the heat emanating around its circumference. An ordinary human would have had their hands already burned off from the contact, but Lilith was not an ordinary human.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“Beatrice, on your front beside Ava, please,” Lilith said, commanding the sister warrior. Just then, a man in his mid twenties, with short cropped blonde hair and pale skin, burst through the door with a metal prong in his hand.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“I’ll handle it, this is my job,” he said.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Lilith rolled her eyes, but gave up the relic that was still in her hand. Michael took it with the metal prong. He held the halo up to his face, as close as he could handle the heat. His eyes gleamed, reflecting the relic’s glow; even the freckles on his face seemed to be reflecting the light.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“It’s beautiful,” he remarked.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“There is no time to admire the halo, Mi -“ it was Mary who spoke, but no one heard the end of that sentence. An astounding force crashed into one of the walls of the crypt, blasting it open to the darkness of the early morning. The sister warriors and Michael were blasted off in different directions as they heard the roar of a ten foot tall creature, its black horns almost scraping the ceiling.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Beatrice coughed. The wind was knocked of her chest upon her impact on the stone floor. When the dust settled, the sister warrior looked around her. She saw Mary flat on her behind, aiming both shotguns at the creature, she saw Lilith just about to stand up when the tarask flung her once more into one of the stone walls with one swipe of its mighty arm. Mother Superion lay motionless in one corner of the room. Beatrice spotted Michael unconscious beside her, the metal prong with the halo now detached from its end out of his hand.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>She let the chainmail mask drop in front of her face, preparing herself for a fight. Mary fired at the tarask, but the creature paid no mind, instead attracted to the faint glow of the halo, and started making its way towards it.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“Beatrice! It’s not worth the fight! Just take the halo and go,” Mary said, now firing at the tarask’s back. Lilith was only starting to stir back into consciousness.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“The halo is the mission, take it and go!” this time, it was Lilith who spoke, preparing to charge for the creature. Beatrice knew they were right.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>She crawled over to where Michael was. The tarask was very near, Beatrice could feel its hot breath through her fighting habit. There was no time attach the halo to the prong, so she took it in her bare hand, waiting for the searing pain of burning flesh.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Yet the pain did not come. The halo, perhaps recognizing its next bearer, felt warm against her palm. The relic illuminated the room once skin met metal, blinding the tarask temporarily. The creature backed a few steps away from the future bearer.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Beatrice took one last look at Ava, her limp body still lying motionless and facedown on the marble top table, before turning around and running outside the crypt, through the hole created by the tarask when it barged in.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>The creature chased after her as she ran under the dark blue sky. The early morning wind blew against the soft grass of the convent’s garden as her legs made large strides towards the rose patch, the one that Ava tended. Beatrice felt a pinch in her heart. She didn’t even get to say goodbye.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Before the her, the horizon was familiar: the same bed of red and white roses that the former bearer felt excited about caring for when the task was first assigned to her. Only it was not. Violent streaks of fiery red and black smoke formed a circular barrier of about two meters in diameter like a hole on the horizon. It was bright on the other side, the sun shining on its spot above the Iberian afternoon sky, and the wind was calmer. Beyond the red and black borders of the circular plane, the stars were still visible in the dark blanket of the fading night.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>There were two women currently huddled in the rose garden, conversing with one another.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“Help! Help!” Beatrice shouted after them, but she went unheard.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>The tarask’s growls were growing near, its heavy stomps shaking the earth as it ran after the relic in Beatrice’ hands. The sister warrior from the night had no choice but to run into the sun.</em>
</p><p> </p><p>xxx</p><p> </p><p>“Ava is dead?” Mary asked. “You gotta give us something more than that.”</p><p>“What do you remember before you lost consciousness?” Camila clarified the question.</p><p>“Our team was on a mission, except I’m not a part of the team,” Sister Beatrice began. “Just a few miles from the Cat’s Cradle, we found out that Adriel has been hiding in plain sight in a small village just at the foot of the hill, San Sîmon.”</p><p>“The San Sîmon mission?” Mary exclaimed incredulously. Lilith eyed her to tell her not to interrupt the stranger.</p><p>“The mission was a farce, the team was ambushed. It’s as if Adriel has been expecting us all a long. He had an army of villagers possessed by wraith demons and they had Divinium in their weapons. Ava took a beating,” Sister Beatrice continued. She swallowed a lump in her throat and cast her face down. “She did not make it. At this point, a tarask started attacking the convent in search of the halo.Well, Lilith, you had to tear the halo away from Ava’s back with your bare hand because Michael did not arrive in time.”</p><p>“Who’s Michael?” Mary asked.</p><p>“A boy who was brought up by the OCS? He’s main task is to facilitate the transfer of the halo from the former bearer to the next,” Sister Beatrice replied. “What’s going on here?”</p><p>“We ask the questions,” Mary said.</p><p>“So, what happened with the halo? Obviously, you are not it’s current bearer,” Lilith asked.</p><p>“The tarask tore down a portion of the wall in the room where we were gathered. You two were trying to hold it off and I took off with the halo to keep it safe. I ran outside the Cradle and the tarask chased after me,” Sister Beatrice narrated. “I kept running towards Ava’s rose garden because I saw two sister warriors conversing there.”</p><p>“Did you find anything unusual about that rose garden?” Lilith prodded. The stranger stopped to think, looking into the crevices of her mind through wide eyes, the same expression Beatrice always had when she was deep in thought.</p><p>“It was early in the morning when these events took place and it was still very dark outside,” Sister Beatrice replied. “But the rose garden, it was as if the area was in day time.</p><p>“And you just ran into it? You didn’t suspect anything amiss about that?” Lilith asked.</p><p>“I was being chased by a tarask trying to protect a holy relic. I told you, I saw two sister warriors conversing in the garden. I was trying to get their attention.” Sister Beatrice replied.</p><p>“Sister Beatrice, the San Sîmon mission that you are speaking of, it happened a year ago,” Lilith broke the news.</p><p>“Are you saying that I’ve been unconscious for an entire year?” Sister Beatrice replied.</p><p>“We saw you barging towards us, running under a dark sky from a hole on the horizon. It was three in the afternoon, just a few hours ago, yet it was as if you came from the night,” Mary said.</p><p>“So, in this story, I am now a time traveler?” Sister Beatrice replied incredulously.</p><p>“We don’t know that, not yet,” Lilith replied. “But we are going to find out. In the meantime, the halo remains with us for safekeeping, and you are not to leave this room. No one else can see you, Sister Beatrice.”</p><p>“Mary, Sister Camila, could I please speak with the both of you outside?” she added, addressing her sisters.</p><p>Mary nodded, standing up from her seat to step outside the room with the taller woman in her stead.</p><p>“Please rest,” Camila squeezed the stranger’s foot and gave her a smile before following her sisters outside.</p><p>“She was talking about the San Sîmon mission, but her story doesn’t quite square up,” Mary said as soon as the door to the room was shut behind her. “For one, she said she was not part of the mission. Lilith, that was the mission that killed Beatrice.”</p><p>“You don’t think I know that,” Lilith replied. “She was talking about an ambush, we weren’t ambushed. It was a fair fight and Beatrice paid the price. Not to mention, it happened a year ago.”</p><p>“So, time travel?” Camila suggested.</p><p>“We already discussed that the story doesn’t match, Camila,” Lilith replied.</p><p>The three were alone in the dark, deserted corridor but thought it prudent to speak in hushed tones.</p><p>“So, what now? A parallel universe?” Mary said.</p><p>“Could be. The multiverse is a legitimate scientific theory,” Lilith replied. “Maybe we should reach out to Dr. Salvius.”</p><p>Mary took a step back to regard her friend with a smile.</p><p>“What?” Lilith asked, annoyance in her voice.</p><p>“Look at you, almost the seventh halo bearer in her family, dragged into the abyss and back, relying on science to explain what happened,” Mary observed.</p><p>“Stop it, Mary, this is a serious matter,” Lilith replied. “And science and religion are not always mutually exclusive. You should know that. Anything that helps us make sense of Sister Beatrice’ arrival, anything at all, should be welcome.”</p><p>“Okay, we tell Mother Superion about this, then we reach out to Dr. Salvius,” Camila said. “But you’re still not addressing the other elephant in the room.”</p><p>“And what is that?” Lilith asked.</p><p>“When do we tell Ava?” Camila replied.</p><p>“Tell me what?”</p><p>The halo bearer’s voice echoed throughout the walls of the corridor, causing the sister warriors to jump out of their skins. The three were huddled together, so intent in their discussion that they did not hear Ava’s soft footfalls. Now, the halo bearer stood behind Lilith.</p><p>“Ava,” Lilith acknowledged the halo bearer, forcing a smile.</p><p>“What’s happening? Is there a little party in front of Beatrice’ room that I’m not invited to?” Ava said with a grin.</p><p>“What are you doing here?” Lilith replied, unconsciously moving in front of the door to block it from the newcomer.</p><p>“I wanted to go inside Beatrice’ room and hang out alone for a while before I leave tomorrow,” Ava replied. “What are you three doing here anyway?”</p><p>Mary and Camila stared at Lilith, relying on the tallest sister warrior to know what to say.Lilith sighed.</p><p>‘Why must I do everything around here?’ she thought.</p><p>“Ava, there is something that we need to tell you. We don’t want to burden you with this knowledge since you’re leaving and all but, we think it’s just fair that you are apprised,” Lilith started.</p><p>“Come on, spit it out,” Ava replied.</p><p>“We want to ease you into it as much as possible,” Lilith stalled, swallowing the lump in her throat. “The whole business might come as a shock. Perhaps we should discuss the matter over tea?”</p><p>“Tea? You know I don’t do tea. And I don’t have that much time either, leaving tomorrow and all of that, remember?” Ava replied. “Hello? Did you hit your head on something and somehow forgot?” She formed a fist and rapped her knuckles against Lilith’s forehead softly, teasing her friend. The taller woman’s jaw clenched at the contact.</p><p>“What Lilith is saying is that maybe we should go somewhere quiet where we can sit-“ Mary came to Lilith’s rescue, but was interrupted when they heard a loud crash from inside the room. It sounded like glass breaking.</p><p>“Oh no no no,” Mary said, turning quickly to open the door to Beatrice’ room. It was empty. The winds that caressed the Iberian hills blew into the space through the large, Beatrice-sized hole on the mosaic glass panel of Padre Pio. Shards of red, yellow, blue, and green glass littered the floor.</p><p>This particular dormitory corridor was on the first floor of the Cat’s Cradle and it would have been a soft fall for Sister Beatrice. Not that Lilith was worried for the stranger. If she had the same skills that the Beatrice she knew had, she would know how to take a fall. The sister warrior was more concerned about the relic that was resting inside the wooden cabinet. She was beside the furniture in a split second, opening it to confirm her suspicions.</p><p>“Who was here? What the hell is going on?” a frantic Ava said, eyeing the debris of glass on the floor as soon as she stepped into the room. Her questions went unheard.</p><p>The halo was nowhere to be found. The spot it previously occupied was now just a circular dent on the throw pillow. The brace full of weapons, as well as the two knives previously sheathed on each of the stranger’s boots were gone.</p><p>“She took the halo,” Lilith declared. “She can’t be seen wandering around.”</p><p>“I’ll look for her,” Mary replied, about to barge out of the door.</p><p>“No, I’m on it. It’s more efficient this way,” Lilith said before disappearing into a void of red fiery light and black smoke.</p><p> </p><p>xxx</p><p> </p><p>When Lilith reappeared, she was underneath the window just outside the library. She saw a figure clad in black running away from the Cat’s Cradle towards the direction of the convent’s garage. The sister warrior tackled the stranger from behind, coming down with her on the soft loam beneath their feet. Sister Beatrice rolled over, gaining the upper hand and straddling Lilith on her hips who was now lying on her back on the grass. Her left hand pinned Lilith’s wrist on the ground. Her right held the halo against the sister warrior’s throat. A bead of sweat rolled down Lilith’s neck from the heat emanating from the relic. Her free hand went to the stranger’s wrist.</p><p>“Sister Beatrice, we told you, you can’t be seen by anyone else, not at this time,” Lilith said.</p><p>“You are not going to make a prisoner out of me,” Sister Beatrice replied, the halo in her hand dangerously close to Lilith’s skin. “I don’t know what is happening here but I’m sure this is the devil’s work. You are not the Lilith that I know and those back in the room are not my sisters. I left my real sisters behind fending off a tarask and I have to go back for them.”</p><p>“You’d have to go through my dead body first before you get to the halo,” the stranger replied.</p><p>Lilith would have laughed if she weren’t pinned to the ground by a very confused version of her friend. Beatrice’ dead body? This stranger had no idea how many times she has seen it, how far she had carried it, how long she had mourned it. No, this stranger had no idea at all.</p><p>“You may have the halo but you are not yet its bearer,” Lilith replied. “If the Lilith that you know is anything like me, you would know that you are no match for my powers. If you resist, this would end badly.”</p><p>This Beatrice might have been confused, but she was still as reasonable as her friend. She allowed the hand that held the halo fall to the ground and let go of Lilith, standing up from where she sat on the sister warrior’s hips. She held a hand out to help the taller woman to her feet.</p><p>“Frankly, I do not know what’s going on,” Sister Beatrice started. “A moment ago, I saw Ava die in front of me. Before I could even mourn her, I had to fend of a tarask and take the halo to safety. And now, I end up in this familiar yet strange place.</p><p>“We haven’t an ounce of an idea either,” Lilith replied. “But we are still your safest bet. You have to stay with us until we figure this out.”</p><p>“I have a million questions,” Sister Beatrice said.</p><p>“I’m sure you do,” Lilith replied. “But let’s get back to the room before someone else sees you.”</p><p>“That is the first of my queries,” the stranger said. “Why are you so averse to me being seen by anyone else?”</p><p>Lilith sighed. She didn’t think that they’d have to tackle the topic this soon. They were just getting acquainted.</p><p>“Let me show you instead,” Lilith replied. She placed a hand against the crook of the stranger’s elbow dragging her into the abyss.</p><p> </p><p>xxx</p><p> </p><p>The pair reappeared a few seconds later in the empty churchyard. The sun was low on the horizon and the winds blew a lot harsher against their bodies. The stranger has never teleported before; the other Sister Lilith, her Sister Lilith, has never taken her on those instantaneous trips, and she felt nauseous. She almost wanted to throw up but fought the urge, seeing that they were on solemn grounds.</p><p>Littered around them in neat rows were gray stone slabs that were uniform in size and shape, protruding from the earth like a dreadful garden patch. The stranger immediately recognized the place. They were in the Cat’s Cradle graveyard, the final resting place of fallen sister warriors. The last person she buried here was Sister Shannon, the next would be Ava. Her heart sank at the physical reminder that she won’t be seeing her face ever again once she’s been placed underground.</p><p>“Come,” Lilith said. The taller woman made her way to the row of graves nearest the church. The stone slabs grew increasingly neater as they approached the cathedral, signaling that the graves that were dug there were fresher. The stranger saw Sister Shannon’s grave as they passed by, it was in the same spot she remembered it to be. Lilith stopped before the newest stone in the churchyard, by its lonesome in its row.</p><p>The taller woman took a step back to give the stranger a moment to read the engraving.</p><p> </p><p>
  <strong>HERE LIES SISTER BEATRICE</strong>
</p><p>
  <strong>NOVEMBER 13, 1998 - FEBRUARY 5, 2021</strong>
</p><p>
  <strong>PROTECTOR OF THE HALO</strong>
</p><p>
  <strong>SALVATION OF THE BEARER</strong>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <strong>YOU MADE KNOWN TO ME THE PATH OF LIFE</strong>
</p><p> </p><p>“February 5, 2021...that’s today,” the stranger spoke.</p><p>“No,” Lilith replied. “That day is exactly a year ago. Beatrice has been dead for a year, she sustained heavy wounds during the mission in San Sîmon.”</p><p>Sister Beatrice approached the stone bearing her own name and crouched in front of it, tracing the letters that spelled the moniker she chose when she took her vows. It felt strange to have her feet planted on the earth below which another version of herself rested in peace for all of eternity. This version has, in her short life, wandered the same grounds, slept in the same room, fought the same fights, save one. She wanted to get to know her, yearned to find out how much they were the same and what set them apart. She wished to know what made her laugh, what she feared, the things she would have died for.</p><p>
  <em>Whom she loved.</em>
</p><p>She had a million questions, and if she had any hope of getting any answers, she would have to trust Beatrice’ team.</p><p>“I want to know what’s going on here,” Sister Beatrice said, standing up once again.</p><p>“We have the same goal,” Lilith replied, the silver strands of her long hair blowing against the early evening wind. “I think it’s best if we consult with Jillian Salvius right away.”</p><p>The stranger nodded. “Alright,” Sister Beatrice replied. “On one condition.”</p><p>“The halo stays on my person.”</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Thank you for reading and I would love to hear what you think, as usual.</p><p>On a side note, Lady Gaga absolutely slayed the national anthem at the inauguration.</p>
        </blockquote><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Thank you for reading! Although I haven’t outlined the entire fic, this work will most likely comprise twenty chapters, but each chapter would be shorter than the ones I wrote for The Thread Between Us. Hopefully, around 5k-8k words each, just so that they would not be overwhelming to write and that I can update weekly. My dream is to write at least three long fics for Avatrice before the show gets cancelled :P</p><p>As always, I appreciate your comments!</p></blockquote></div></div>
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